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This is 32 year old Rusnawati. Her two young children were lost in the tsunami, yet after that heartbreak she is rebuilding hope for the future and is expecting a new baby.

Rusnawati lives in Cot Seumereng a small village about an hours drive from the district capital of Meulaboh. The house Rusnawati now calls home was built by Caritas Australia partner, Catholic Relief Services (CRS). Many of the people living in Cot Seumereng have relocated from Kuala Bubon, a traditional fishing village located close to the water. The proximity to the water meant this village was one of the worst hit. Every family lost their homes and many lost family members.

This trauma proved so great that most of the people from Kuala Bubon did not want to return to their original land. The bodies of Rusnawati’s young children, one six years and the other just one month, were never found and hence she hopes that they may still be alive, “I moved here because I don’t want to be close to the ocean anymore and see the place where my children went missing. I always feel that they are still out there.”

For Rusnawati, who recently moved to her new house from temporary shelter, she is simply grateful to have a complete home, “I like the house because it is safe and also because it is complete. It has walls, roof, kitchen, walls. We are happy here.”

Men from the village, such as Cut Amin, Rusnawati’s husband, have found new work as fish retailers selling produce at nearby markets. But for women like Rusnawati the question of livelihoods for the future is an important one, “it is difficult here because we have no livelihoods. I was a seamstress before but now I do not have the capital to make clothes although I have a sewing machine. I have a house, but I need an income.”

Top : Rusnawati in front of her new home

Bottom: Mosques are an important part of the community in Aceh where the vast majority of the population practices Islam. Doubling as community meeting places, these open sided mosques are designed to be easily accessible to the community and to maximize airflow in the tropical humidity of Aceh.